The Pre-Millennialist Jeff Scott Kennedy writes in his paper An Ecclesiology of Escapism that Pre-Tribulationists fail to distinguish between “literal” and “literalistic.” Kennedy writes that the literal view allows that “figures of speech may well point to literal realities.”

The imagery of the New Testament offers invaluable points of comparison between our experience and the unknown. Jesus, for instance, used metaphors of scattering seed on various types of soil, hidden treasure in a field, or mustard seeds that become large trees, in order to communicate aspects of his very real Kingdom.